Para-running star Evan O'Hanlon wants to get in the slipstream of teenage prodigy Jack Hale to help him achieve his goal of qualifying for the men's 100 metres at the national championships.
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Having achieved every accolade on offer running against athletes with a disability, O'Hanlon will take on able-bodied athletes in the men's 100m at the Canberra Track Classic at the AIS on Saturday.
O'Hanlon will run in the "B" race in his first attempt this season to reach the qualifying time for the national championships – 10.84 seconds.
Hale would have been the perfect rabbit to chase, but the 16-year-old Tasmanian – who grabbed headlines with a sensational wind-assisted run of 10.13 seconds late last year – bypassed the event and has pulled out of this weekend's Ballarat Gift with a hamstring injury.
O'Hanlon hopes he can share the track with Hale later in the summer to aid in his quest to share the stage with able-bodied compatriots at the national titles.
"I'd like to have a race against him," O'Hanlon said.
"At least I've got an excuse, I've got a disability.
O'Hanlon has cerebral palsy as a result of a prenatal stroke, and has limited control of the left side of his body.
He has dominated the T38 division for athletes with a disability for the past six years, winning gold in the 100m and 200m at both the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games.
The 26-year-old sat out last season after contracting viral meningitis in 2013, to give himself the best chance of qualifying for the men's 100m at this year's national championships in Brisbane in March.
His personal best and world record time of 10.79 seconds will be enough to get him in the field, but he knows the challenge is in front of him.
"If I'm running against disabled guys, I get it in my head that I'm definitely going to win the race," O'Hanlon said. "Whereas with the able-bodied guys, even if I execute my race and run fast, I'm not going to win, and chances are I might look a bit silly out the back.
"I've got to do a really good job so I don't come last."
O'Hanlon is confident he can achieve the qualifying time at some stage during the Australian Athletics Tour.
"If it's hot and we have a bit of a tail-breeze rather than a headwind, which I keep running into, anything can happen this weekend," O'Hanlon said.
"It's just really hard to tell. I definitely have it in me, I can see it in the training sessions. It just depends if it's this week or it's going to take three weeks to come out."
